


tendency

by Nerd_of_Camelot



Series: Borderlands Prompts/Requests [1]
Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Behavioral Analyst Timothy Lawrence, Doppelganger, English Major Timothy Lawrence, Gen, One Word Prompts, Short, also, he had a special interest in college ok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-27
Updated: 2020-02-27
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:02:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22935265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nerd_of_Camelot/pseuds/Nerd_of_Camelot
Summary: tendency: an inclination toward a particular characteristic or behavior--Working as Jack’s doppelgänger, Tim picked up on a lot of the man’s quirks. His peculiarities.And each thing that he picked up on, he emulated.
Series: Borderlands Prompts/Requests [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1648405
Kudos: 30





	tendency

Working as Jack’s doppelgänger, Tim picked up on a lot of the man’s quirks. His peculiarities.

He picked up on how Jack’s lip would curl with disgust at the mere mention of Atlas or Dahl. He picked up on the way Jack would gesticulate with his hands very heavily when he got agitated. He picked up on the cool and calm, “I’m the king here,” demeanor Jack presented.

And each thing that he picked up on, he emulated.

Every microscopic personality trait, tic, or even just a word choice preference, he picked up on and he emulated to better his impersonation of Jack. Every little tiny thing was important. Even just the way Jack picked up glasses to drink from them was important―but thankfully, Tim had a lot of training with this sort of thing. He’d gotten a degree in behavioral analysis on top of all of the other bullshit he’d put himself through in college. He’d made those loans worth it…

And now he’d never need to pay them off.

Funny.

Point was, he knew how to pick up on behaviors and he was a good enough actor to be able to put on a pretty damn good Jack act―he even learned to emulate the bastard’s hair-trigger temper and knew a good deal of the triggers for it. He could imitate it right down to the ‘going totally murderous at the mention of his wife’ thing.

It was all an act, of course (and a well put together one, too, if he did say so himself), and like any good actor he knew his character inside and out. He could turn the personality on and off like a toggle switch.

There were just… Well, there were some things that he couldn’t ever completely remove from himself―things he’d picked up from Jack that had engrained themselves into his real personality and presentation… Not that there was much left in terms of pieces of him that were still “Tim” and not Jack, of course.

The biggest offender on the list of tendencies he couldn’t shake even when he wasn’t actively putting on a Jack performance?

Petnames and instinctual insults.

More often than not, when he spoke to Jack he had to physically restrain himself from calling him things like “sugartits” or “moron”. He’d slipped several times and called him _Princess_ , but thankfully that had only amused the man. He could only imagine what sort of things might happen if he let even one utterance of “bastard” in Jack’s general direction slip out.

He shuddered at the thought.

“―but anyways, sugartits,” He found himself saying to one of Jack’s other doppelgänger’s―a new one he’d been put in charge of training in Jack’s stead, “A big thing you gotta remember about being me?”

He looked him in the eyes, grinning Jack’s shit-eating grin, hands firmly on the newbie’s shoulders. He knew he looked unsettling. Part of being Jack was wielding a toothy grin like a scythe of impending destruction whenever he could, and making people afraid of him. Afraid to fight against him.

For all this poor little pissant knew, he was speaking _directly_ to Handsome Jack himself, not another doppelgänger, and against his own wishes the fact made a sick satisfaction twist in his gut.

“What’s that?” The newbie asked, meeting his gaze with an impartial frown.

Not intimidated at all, at first glance. But Tim could see the tenseness in his figure, the set of his jaw behind the skin of his cheeks. He was nervous.

If Tim’s grin could have gotten any wider it would have. This was another thing he couldn’t shake―the inherent sadism that came with portraying Jack. He’d be much more concerned about it if he wasn’t in-character right now.

He leaned closer to the newbie, left them nose to nose, and said, “I call the shots, baby. I’m the _king._ And that means I don’t take orders from _anyone else,_ capice?” He allowed the newbie time to nod, “Now _you_ , on the other hand… _You_ don’t take orders from anybody either.”

“Oh?” The quirk of his eyebrow was almost spot-on _perfect_ for Jack.

Tim _liked_ this one.

“Yeah.” Tim assured him, leaning back as his grip tightened until he knew it was painful for the recipient, “Except for _me._ _You_ get _your_ orders from _me._ And y’know what you do when you get those orders, champ?”

“Obey them.” Newbie hissed, wincing only slightly at the pain.

 _“Obey them,_ good answer!” He laughed, releasing him, “Now wipe that grimace off your face, _Jack_ , it’s time for you to see the Hero in action.”

If Tim hadn’t been in Jack-mode, he’d have been a little afraid of himself.

He was definitely afraid of himself later, when he realized that, if he kept this up, threatening people with bodily harm to keep them compliant was going to be another of those tendencies he couldn’t shake even without the mask.


End file.
